Paul, the violent sinner that he was, could be saved by grace. My! It’s no wonder he wrote so much about the grace of God. And that grace, then, is granted to you and to me. We can become like Saul of Tarsus. We can be saved just like Saul of Tarsus was. When HE heard about Christ, when Christ said, “I’m Jesus Who you’re persecuting,” then he came to be a believer! He turned from persecuting Christians to serving Christians and preaching the Gospel. That’s what he wanted to do, then.

When Saul came to be a believer, he was baptized. Ananias came to him and said, “Brother Saul, why are you tarrying? Arise and be baptized and wash away you sins, calling on the Name of the Lord.” [Acts 22:12-16: “And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there, ¹³Came unto me, and stood, and said unto me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And the same hour I looked up upon him. ¹⁴And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know His Will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of His mouth. ¹⁵For thou shalt be His witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. ¹⁶And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the Name of the Lord.”]

That’s the way Saul was SAVED. Could there be any conflict in what he did and what he taught? No…no. He was saved by grace, but he was saved by his faith in Christ Jesus. He was saved by obeying—doing what the Lord…told…him…to do through His servant, Ananias. That’s the way we are saved.

YES, you’re saved by grace. It’s by the grace of God that you have the privilege of being saved. You must act upon it. To receive God’s grace, you must act upon it. Otherwise, His grace to you is in vain.

But, there’s something else about the grace of God that’s significant in the life of the Christian, also. [The second point about the God’s Grace is that GOD’S GRACE GIVES EACH ONE OF US A PURPOSE IN LIFE.]

When Saul of Tarsus said, “Lord, what…will…you…have me to do?”— Oh, I preached for a long time that he was saying, “Lord, what will you have me do to be saved?” And I really believe he meant that. I’m certain he meant that. The burden of the guilt of his sin was so heavy that, he wanted to be saved. But, I think he meant more than that. You see, he’d been this persecutor of the saints! And, now, “If that isn’t what You want me to do, Lord, what DO You want me to do? What…WILL You…have…me to DO…with the rest of my life?” God…gave…Saul, by His grace…a new calling. And He does that for every person who is saved by Grace.

One of the great tragedies in American life today is that so many of us do…not…even…know…what we’re supposed to be doing here! There is no purpose in our existence here. The evolutionist tells us—and we are taught this from pre-school through university—that, we’re here as a product of evolution and NOT because of God’s creation. They say that we’re here merely by chance, and we’re living day by day merely by chance; there really is no purpose in our being here, they say. And so, we are adrift. We’re going along the way. And that’s a sad story. I’m SORRY for the person who does not know that God has a purpose in every…person’s life.

I was blessed early in my life, at age seventeen. I came to the point—somebody had made it possible for me to come to the realization that NONE of us came into the world because we chose, or when we chose, but because God…had…need…of…US…NOW! And I have believed that God has had a purpose…in…my life, which has given me motivation and strength and encouragement in what I’m doing for the Lord.

But, I’m not the only one. That’s an act of God’s grace, too! When He saves us, He gives us a NEW reason for LIVING! If we’ve been living for pleasure, and some people DO, you know— You just look about you, and some people live totally for the pleasure they can get out of life. They go from one pleasure to another. And not all pleasure is evil. There are many things we do for pleasure that are wholesome, good, and, maybe, good recreation. But, when that becomes the purpose for our living, and that’s the reason we get up of a morning, and that’s reason that we pursue God in the day—for the pleasure we get out of the things around us— well, then, we have the wrong focus.

There other people in this world who live for money, possessions—maybe not so much for the money, but for the land, or possessions otherwise. One farmer said to another, “I don’t care to own all the land in the world; I just want to own that which joins mine.” And that’s why some people live. They just live solely for what they can accumulate in this world. But, one of these days we’re going to leave it all behind, and their purpose of life will have ended. Jesus said, '“…a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth,” [Luke 12:15: “And He [Jesus] said unto them, 'Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.”'] Let’s not let our possessions possess us.

Someone has said that there are three groups of people in the world. There are a few people, he says—and he emphasies this—there are FEW people in the world who strain every muscle and every bit of their ENERGY and every NERVE…IN…THEIR…BODY to MAKE…THINGS…HAPPEN!! And there are others who watch things happen. And the rest of them say, “What happened?” That’s where most of us fit in, isn’t it? because we didn’t know that God has a purpose for US here, too. Been that way all along.